The United States has charged two Russian nationals in connection with the hack of Mt. Gox, a collapsed cryptocurrency exchange known for one of the world's earliest and biggest alleged bitcoin heists.
The accused individuals are Alexey Bilyuchenko, 43, and Aleksandr Verner, 29.
They have been charged with conspiring to launder approximately 647,000 bitcoins that were obtained through the hack of Mt. Gox.
Mt. Gox collapsed in 2014 after losing around half a billion dollars worth of cryptocurrency at the time.
The hack of Mt. Gox highlighted the vulnerability of cryptocurrency exchanges and their users to cybercriminals.
Bilyuchenko was closely associated with Alexander Vinnik, a Russian cybercrime kingpin.
Vinnik was arrested in Greece in 2017, convicted of money laundering in France in 2020, and is currently awaiting trial in California on charges related to running BTC-e, a defunct Russian exchange accused by the Department of Justice of serving cybercriminals worldwide.
When Vinnik was arrested, Bilyuchenko narrowly escaped arrest by disposing of his computer, throwing it into the sea, and quickly returning to Moscow.
The Department of Justice has also charged Bilyuchenko with conspiring with Vinnik to operate BTC-e from 2011 to 2017.
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